1. Field of the Invention
The claimed inventions relate to texting services in general and apparatii and methods for providing texting services to telephone numbers that currently do not support texting services such as telephone numbers for voice grade telephone lines and handsets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Texting services such as SMS, MMS, and TMS are widely available on cellular phone networks and have proven to be a popular form of communication due to the immediate yet unobtrusive and deferrable nature of text messages. Despite these advantages, texting has been primarily limited to cell phones in general and to affiliated parties such as family members, friends and colleagues that have direct knowledge that the intended party has a cell phone that is able to receive such messages. In particular, small businesses and residences with established and published phone numbers have been unable to tap into the power of text messaging and support customer interaction with texting services despite the preference of many consumers for this convenient form of communication.